A person under water may typically wear a jacket with compensating equipment to adjust the effective weight of the person in the water to control depth or to enable the person to rise in the water when desired or necessary. A weight belt often used to aid in achieving neutral buoyancy typically comprises a belt having thereon pouches containing weights. Weights can also be carried in pockets on such jackets.
Persons engaged in underwater activities often utilize a buoyancy compensator arrangement with an inflatable bladder, or the like, for buoyancy trim or compensation. Such a bladder is inflatable orally or by a container of compressed gas in the jacket worn by the person. To rise up in the water, the tank is filled with air and when it is desired to lower the person in the water, air is released by a valve. Weights are often disposed in pockets attached to such a jacket for the release of the weights to enable the person to rise through the water.
A person must be able to release the weights quickly when desired or necessary. In underwater emergencies, it is vital that the weights be quickly releasable at a proper time so that the weights may drop away to give more buoyancy to the person. Quick-release systems or arrangements have heretofore been utilized, including bottom-opening pockets containing weights, and openable to drop the weights. Such an arrangement involves the desirability or necessity that the person be generally vertically oriented. Present prior art weight-release arrangements involve a person wearing a jacket whereon weights are provided in a pouch or pouches. To release the weights, a person pulls on such a pocket and separates Velcro fasteners to release the pocket from the jacket. This arrangement has the shortcoming that Velcro fasteners become weak or ineffective when under water, so that the Velcro fasteners do not work well, and the weights tend to fall out at an inappropriate time and are lost.
Upon the weights falling out from the pockets, the person rises up in the water undesirably or accidentally. Such rapid rising causes air in the lungs to expand rapidly, thus putting pressure on blood vessels to cause possible internal bleeding and ear problems, or worse results.
When wearing relatively heavy gloves under water, particularly cold water, a person cannot readily squeeze the sides of a buckle for disengagement of male and female buckle members. A person may drown while endeavoring to open a buckle, thus resulting in possible lawsuits and complications.
It is desirable or necessary that the weights do not fall out and drop away until the appropriate moment at which the person desires or it is necessary for the person to release them. Under dangerous circumstances, it should not be necessary for the person to reach, grasp the buckle to squeeze side arms of a male member, then reach across to grasp a weight pocket or pouch, then pull the buckle members apart. Without going through such steps, a person loses the entire weight pocket or pockets, and thus loses control of the rising process.
The present invention provides a quick-release or disengagement buckle apparatus wherein a male buckle having at least one deformable portion is retained in a female pull opening to retain the members together, and an elongated pull element extends from the deformable portion for manual pulling thereof to disengage the male member from the female member. The at least one or preferably two deformable protuberances comprise at least one spring arm adapted to engage in a lateral opening of the female member to retain the members together, and the members are disengageable by pulling on the elongated pull element to deform the deformable protuberances element or elements to deform them to disengage the male and female members from each other.